Rise, Decline and Renewal

The Democratic Party in Maine

Doug Rooks

Rise, Decline and Renewal tells the remarkable story of the Maine Democratic Party – how it suddenly rose from irrelevance in 1954 with the election of Governor Ed Muskie, successfully challenged the ruling Republican Party over the next two decades, and initiated a creative period of wide-ranging reforms that produced a model government for a state long perceived as a cultural and economic backwater. Prosperity was clouded by leadership failures, however, then succeeded by political and institutional decline. The vision that had once galvanized Democrats faded, elected officials clung to power, and legislators failed to provide good representation for the citizens who’d empowered them. The final chapters describe how Maine’s largest political party can again seize the initiative, energize a new generation of young people, and govern in the public interest once more.« lessmore »

As a journalist, Douglas Rooks served as editorial page editor for the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, and editor and publisher of Maine Times; he has written about state government and politics for 33 years, earning numerous national and regional awards. His biography, Statesman: George Mitchell and the Art of the Possible, was published in 2016 by Down East Books. A graduate magna cum laude of Colby College, he is former board president of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church, and lives with his wife in a 210-year-old farmhouse in West Gardiner.

Through decades of writing, Doug Rooks has chronicled, with unparalleled insight and devotion, Maine’s politics – a state that’s produced from its 1.3 million people an outsized share of leaders with national and international significance.Now, Rooks tells where these leaders came from, and in the process tells Maine’s story: its sudden metamorphosis into a two-party state; the successes of reform; recent periods of strife; and the author’s prescriptions for future progress.Throughout the world, democracies are under stress. Rooks provides a case study for how to grapple with that stress, and meet the challenges citizens face in this continuing struggle.—Former State Senator Peter Mills— Peter Mills, Former State Senator

...Rooks uses journalistic skills to bring insight and acuity, as well as refreshing clarity to this story. . . Rooks' history is an informatifve primer on Maine state politics and politicians, and explains why the public thinks politics is a high form of free entertainment.— Kennebec Journal

Rise, Decline and Renewal

The Democratic Party in Maine

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Summary

Rise, Decline and Renewal tells the remarkable story of the Maine Democratic Party – how it suddenly rose from irrelevance in 1954 with the election of Governor Ed Muskie, successfully challenged the ruling Republican Party over the next two decades, and initiated a creative period of wide-ranging reforms that produced a model government for a state long perceived as a cultural and economic backwater. Prosperity was clouded by leadership failures, however, then succeeded by political and institutional decline. The vision that had once galvanized Democrats faded, elected officials clung to power, and legislators failed to provide good representation for the citizens who’d empowered them. The final chapters describe how Maine’s largest political party can again seize the initiative, energize a new generation of young people, and govern in the public interest once more.

As a journalist, Douglas Rooks served as editorial page editor for the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, and editor and publisher of Maine Times; he has written about state government and politics for 33 years, earning numerous national and regional awards. His biography, Statesman: George Mitchell and the Art of the Possible, was published in 2016 by Down East Books. A graduate magna cum laude of Colby College, he is former board president of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church, and lives with his wife in a 210-year-old farmhouse in West Gardiner.

Through decades of writing, Doug Rooks has chronicled, with unparalleled insight and devotion, Maine’s politics – a state that’s produced from its 1.3 million people an outsized share of leaders with national and international significance.Now, Rooks tells where these leaders came from, and in the process tells Maine’s story: its sudden metamorphosis into a two-party state; the successes of reform; recent periods of strife; and the author’s prescriptions for future progress.Throughout the world, democracies are under stress. Rooks provides a case study for how to grapple with that stress, and meet the challenges citizens face in this continuing struggle.—Former State Senator Peter Mills— Peter Mills, Former State Senator

...Rooks uses journalistic skills to bring insight and acuity, as well as refreshing clarity to this story. . . Rooks' history is an informatifve primer on Maine state politics and politicians, and explains why the public thinks politics is a high form of free entertainment.— Kennebec Journal